Should former boxing champ Jack Johnson get a posthumous pardon from President Obama?

His family wants it, and ironically, so does U.S. Sen. John McCain. As the AP reported,

“Relatives and hometown supporters of the nation’s first black heavyweight boxing champion are turning to YouTube to convince President Barack Obama to posthumously pardon him of a 1913 conviction for accompanying a white woman across state lines.

“Jack Johnson, nicknamed the ‘Galveston Giant’ after his Texas hometown, was at the center of racial tensions after winning the title in 1908. … Three years later, Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury for violating a Jim Crow-era law that made it illegal to transport white women across state lines for ‘immoral purposes.’ He was sentenced to a year in prison.

” … Lawmakers have asked for a pardon three times in the past decade, most recently in March, though none has been successful. The Justice Department has said its general policy is not to process posthumous pardon requests, and the White House declined to comment on the most recent congressional resolution.”

Whaddya think?

— Does a pardon after all these years seem justified?

— Should any posthumous pardons be issued, or is it too hard to sort out the facts many years later?

— Do you favor any similar actions, like an official apology for slavery?